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Do you know Ruby? As I understand Rails is a framework for Ruby, similar as Zend is a framework to PHP. Although, I may be completely wrong ;) If that is true, then I'd say probably look into some Ruby books first, perhaps someone here could recommend a good one. Unless people learn Ruby and Rails hand in hand...
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JoshDec 17 '10 at 15:00

2

I had zero knowledge of Ruby before I started creating a Rails website. Ruby is so natural and intuitive that there's scarcely any point in studying it in isolation.
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Adam CrosslandDec 17 '10 at 15:17

Agile Web Development is exactly what I was going to recommend. It was the only reference that I used (aside from the web, obviously) when I was creating a web site in Rails.
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Adam CrosslandDec 17 '10 at 15:18

+1, agile web development is the book to read on this topic, since it is co-authored by DHH (who wrote Rails). Start there to get a solid foundation.
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Justin EthierDec 17 '10 at 15:32

You will probably want to start off with Rails 3.0, so make sure you get the right edition of any book on rails.
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Bryan RehbeinDec 17 '10 at 16:53

Once you've grasped the basics of creating web applications with Rails and are looking for further reading, I highly recommend you check out both the RSpec Book and The Well-Grounded Rubyist.

The former gives a great overview of behaviour-driven development with an eye to Rails, and is worth reading because the Ruby community has a strong emphasis on testing and most people are using the tools described in the RSpec book.

The latter is the best book out there for getting into a Ruby mindset and developing your knowledge of the language from 'the pretty guts behind Rails' to understanding both the guts and the ethos of the language, which approaches many things with a very different perspective from C# and similar languages.

I also have a copy of Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers and it's been pretty helpful in providing an overview of Rails, drawing parallels with ASP.NET, and giving a good introduction to web development in general.

I would recommend The Rails 3 Way. I cannot say enough good things about it. It covers every part of Rails, including many of the essential gems you need to know about. And it works both as a read for a beginner and a reference guide for the intermediate Rails developer.

If you're feeling flush, I would also throw in The RSpec Book, for a good grounding in how to write in a BDD way, which I personally think is a near-essential for Rails devs.